Tragedy plus time equals comedy. TV pioneer Steve Allen gets the credit for saying it first. The brief blackout during Super Bowl 2013 wasn’t really a tragedy, at least not compared to other events, sporting or otherwise, in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome’s history, but it wasn’t exactly a laugh-riot, either.

Enough time has passed since that embarrassing 34-minute bathroom break, though, to look back and laugh, or at least smile, or at least IM a smiley emoticon. The Emmy Awards have granted us that opportunity by awarding a statue to our most recent Super Bowl for …

I’m not ready to call the new fall season potentially great, at least not in the sense of Beyonce-on-the-Superdome-50-in-all-her-Sasha-Fierceness great, but there are several more titles to put on my watch list.

All of the above stay, with “The Michael J. Fox Show” even moving up. NBC’s delivery of preview episodes beyond the premiere prove that “Treme’s” Wendell Pierce, who plays Fox’s TV-newsroom boss on what’s otherwise a family comedy, is going to have a great year.

I’m not predicting the same for all of the latecomers to my list, but they deserve better than that “blah” I blabbed a couple of months ago. All of the new shows get expanded blurbs (with premiere dates and networks) elsewhere in my Fall TV preview package, but here’s a quick cheat-sheet of my favorites among them:

Dramas

James Spader brings his brand of Big Weird to NBC’s “The Blacklist.” CBS’ “Hostages” has the potential to be a taut, suspenseful, 15-hour movie. Fox’s “Almost Human” channels “Blade Runner” and “RoboCop” for an intriguing look into the future of crime-busting. The acting ensemble for ABC’s “Lucky 7,” which includes Slidell native Stephen Louis Grush, is first-class. CW’s “The Originals,” though far from my favorite genre (sexy vampires), will say New Orleans’ name approximately every 10 minutes. And ABC’s “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” could be trippy fun.

I didn’t include any of the new cable offerings in my preview package, mostly because I only have two arms, 10 fingers and the remnants of one brain. But there are a few new arrivals worth listing, starting with “Masters of Sex,” starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan in the story of pioneering sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson. The subject matter is premium cable all the way – it premieres at 9 p.m. Sept. 29 on Showtime – and the lead performances are stellar.

Also worthy of DVR space is “Hello Ladies,” starring Ricky Gervais collaborator Stephen Merchant as a very tall, very geeky guy looking for love. It arrives at 9:30 p.m. Sept. 29 on HBO.

And then there’s “American Horror Story: Coven,” currently shooting in New Orleans The tale of witches, voodoo and Lord-knows-what qualifies as a new show because of the way the series restarts its stories every season – it actually competes in the miniseries category at the Emmys, at which is has multiple nominations this year -- and based on the promos and images that have been oozing out of FX all summer. This season should prove to be the strangest story this horror show has told yet, starting at 9 p.m. Oct. 9.